Oscar Wilde's ability to skewer societal hypocrisies is masterful -- and his 1895 farce The Importance of Being Earnest is a pitch-perfect send-up of Victorian pseudo-morality and the embodiment of fin de siÃ¨cle British dandyism.

Oscar Wilde's ability to skewer societal hypocrisies is masterful -- and his 1895 farce The Importance of Being Earnest is a pitch-perfect send-up of Victorian pseudo-morality and the embodiment of fin de siècle British dandyism.

The most amusing part, however, is that it's written by what one chronicler of dandyism (Captain Gronow) describes as a failed fashionophile, who "dressed in the worst possible taste, wore sparkling jewels on a dirty shirt front, and diamond rings on unwashed fingers."

Self-Portrait with Flowered Hat (1883/1888) is one of several instances exhibited here displaying changes to the image — the flowered hat itself and tendril-like brushwork across the face — to up the ante on dandyism, and tease us with anti-conventional stances.

But much set him apart, particularly his dandyism, theatrics, and tireless self-promotion; above all, his widely-read books — a paradoxical enterprise for a semi-literate culinarian — propelled his renown, showcasing both his literary pretensions and popularizing bent.